Art and Calisthenics | Lee Adkins Jr.

December 27, 2017

Art and Calisthenics | Lee Adkins Jr.

Art and Calisthenics can go hand and hand. In fact, art is all around us and is very dominant in calisthenics. Training to control your body in impossible ways is an art form because it teaches you form and movement.

The type of body you build is art in itself. What’s important is how it makes you think and zone into a different universe than lifting weights at the gym can.

There’s a lot of love about calisthenics, but my favorite thing is how it keeps you in the present. This presence helps with focusing in on the task at hand.

When you’re focused, the division between mind and body breaks down and everything else seems to disappear while you gain full control of your body.

It allows movements in your body in more ways than you think possible.

Being able to control every aspect of yourself is art.

The Golden Ratio | Art and Calisthenics

Through human biology, the golden ratio is a mathematical constant that is woven into our existence. It is the unique visual tension between comforting symmetry and compelling asymmetry that I find very common in calisthenics.

Thoughtful applications of these two unique tension can bring harmony and intrigue to all manner of things like cultivating our imperfect body with stress and wear to achieve our own ideal for perfection.

If you want to be perfect in your profession , you would get up with only one aim in life. You would find all ways to attain perfection in your field. Calisthenics is an art that teaches perfection and full control of your mind and body. This strive for perfection could mean flying without jets.

The Front Lever

In calisthenics exercises, the front lever is one of the most if not the most difficult move for a beginner.

It is performed either from static holds or from hanging position reps. This workout involves pulling your whole body up until it’s parallel to the floor and it is almost like you’re laying down in the air.

Lee Adkins Jr, doing a Front Lever | Art and Calisthenics

A static front lever hold in my opinion ranks among the most difficult feats, up there with the human flag and full planche.

There are a few opinions about what muscles are most activated in this exercise. You definitely require a strong core and strong back, but the muscle you use most to perform this move from a dead hang are your lats.

In my personal experience when doing this move, you trigger the teres minor and teres major. Think of it as a lock joint that holds the rotor. If you’ve ever rock climbed in your life, just know that after a long climb, your body naturally figures out how to control that muscle. Just a thought! This man not only held this front lever long, but he did a ton of reps just so I could get a proper shot.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” -Winston Churchill

A pessimist sees the difficulty, but the Optimist sees the Opportunity.

On the topic of Art and Calisthenics having it’s ability in giving us the power to have control, I’d like to share a little thought that has been running through my head.

I am constantly striving to see the positive in every aspect of my life, but it’s not always easy. My mind is still trying to adjust to my relatively new schedule of running Positively Present full time.

My wallet is thinning out as I march forward on my entrepreneurial ventures. And, as I get older, I find myself moving in different directions from some of the people I’ve spent a great deal of time with.My life, and all of our lives is filled with challenges that make it very difficult to be positive sometimes.

However, I believe that choosing to be positive is going to help us all the most in terms of becoming the person we want to be.Even when things are difficult, I know that being positive and striving to make the best of whatever situation we’re in really does make even the most challenging situations easier to bear.

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[…] Do you want to read more of my unprofessional fitness tips or would you rather see more of my fitness photos? Check out my fitness photo shoot with Lee Adkins Jr. to learn more about the art of Calisthenics. […]

About Me

​Andy Tu is a Northern California artist and photographer that serves the metropolitan area of San Jose.
He enjoys exploring and examining a wide variety of subjects in his artistic work that range from compositional narratives to avant-garde experiences.